Spiritual attraction

About 150 people turned up to the Institute of Education debate, but at the same moment, almost 700 found it more congenial to contemplate higher things. That was the crowd - in lecture theatres and overspill space - for Father Raymond Brown of Union Theological Seminary in New York, speaking on a century of research into St John's Gospel, on which he is the author of the standard book, at King's College London.

He was the second person to give the Lambeth Lecture, inaugurated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, visitor of King's. Dr Brown holds the degree of SSL (licence in sacred scripture) from the Pontifical Biblical Commission, along with three other "earned degrees" and 29 honorary ones.